I may not be in Rome, but life's still an adventure.

About

I believe we are all called to be saints -- most of us not in showy ways, but in simple ones. Perhaps even monotonous ones. The majority of our life is not comprised of feasts, but is made up of ordinary time. It's up to us to make that ordinary time something worth writing about.

Papal groupies?

I love being home. I’m sure you could chalk it up to a combination of home cooking, familiarity, no responsibility, and family. But I think what I love most of all is just sitting and talking with my parents. They’re pretty cool people.

I’m sure Mom is ready for me to go back, just so she can get work done. We tend to get off track a lot and just end up talking about everything under the sun. Today after dinner, the three of us just stayed at the dinner table and talked and talked. It was lovely.

During Christmas and Easter, it’s tradition for us to watch the liturgies from the Vatican. So while we were making dinner tonight, Easter Vigil with the Holy Father was on, and we were commenting on things. I also love hanging out with my mom because we think about the same things and care about the same things.

Like the Papal MCs. When I was commenting that there was a new MC I didn’t recognize, I realized how funny that sounded. I paused and then asked her, “Do you think anyone else cares about Papal MCs?”

She said I should pose the question on my blog. Ha!

We don’t know the Papal MCs’ names, of course, but we know their faces and we have names for them. I think at this point, we can assume… we’re not normal.

They’re not all MCs, I suppose — they’re servers — but they’re priests, so it seems strange to just call them servers. They’re like mini MCs, because each one seems to have a group they’re in charge of. The official Papal MC is Father Guido Marini, and I had the privilege of being in the small congregation at a Mass he celebrated for a group of young people a few years ago. I was excited just to be in his presence — when he walked in the door, dressed in a black cassock with his black briefcase, it was like a movie star had entered. Okay, well, I didn’t scream and faint or anything. But I got excited in my pew to myself.

He’s always at the Pope’s side during liturgies. He’s his shadow.

Then there’s the MC we’ve nicknamed “Mom’s MC” – I guess just because he’s her favorite (I’m telling you, only we would have favorite MCs).

We have decided he’s American. He accompanied the Holy Father frequently during his trip to America. I’m not sure if that’s why we decided he’s American. And I’m not sure why he’s Mom’s favorite. But today during the Mass, when I noticed the new MC, Mom commented, “I haven’t seen my MC in awhile.”

See, I’m telling you… we’re not normal.

Then there’s the MC I have decided is from Spain. He is near the Holy Father during the big Vatican liturgies a lot — Easter, Christmas, etc.

Then there’s the MC that we call my MC. It’s because he once touched me on the shoulder, during the Palm Sunday liturgy when I was carrying a huge palm in the procession and we didn’t really know where we were going– he touched me on the shoulder and motioned where I should go. It seems he’s often in charge of all the extraneous people during the liturgy — not just the palm-bearers, but the lectorers, the people coming into the Church (tonight), etc.

When I saw him and he tapped me on the shoulder, I got so excited because I recognized him from the Papal election! He was the crucifer:

So there’s the rundown of the Papal servers. I know, I know, we’re strange.

But the real question we have here is — did Msgr Ganswein get to go home for Easter? He’s the Papal secretary, and we’ve missed him the past few days. I was worried something was wrong, and then Mom told me that he probably got to go home at Easter, since the Pope didn’t have a lot of official visits, paperwork, all of that. I’m still concerned, so if anyone has information on his whereabouts, please let me know.

This post makes me feel a lot better about my self. I have a guy that I really like. But I’m still new so I don’t know what or who he is… But I think he’s cute and nice looking. Anyway, good to know there’s some one weirder than me. 🙂